Category: Plumbing

Avoiding Emergencies with an Automatic Shut-Off Valve

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We know that if at all possible you want to avoid calling for an emergency plumber in Rockville, MD—or wherever your house is in our service area. We understand, of course. Our expert plumbers are always ready to come to your assistance, and we offer 24-hour emergency plumbing service because we know that plumbing problems don’t obey schedules and calendars or care much what time of night it is. When you need that burst pipe or gushing broken faucet fixed, you can count on us to be on the job.

But let’s talk prevention because, as we said above, you don’t want to be in a situation where you’re calling up a 24-hour service plumber. And you’d also like to have peace of mind about plumbing problems striking when you can’t call for a plumber, such as a broken fixture creating flooding while you’re off on a vacation (something that’s a big concern at this time of year).

An Automatic Shut-Off Valve Is a Great Prevention Device

We recommend all homes in our service area have an automatic shut-off valve (also called an emergency shut-off valve) installed in their plumbing if they don’t have one already. These valves are attached to the main water line as it enters the home, close to the manual shut-off valve.

(Reminder: If you don’t know exactly where the manual shut-off valve is, make sure you locate it. You may at times need to shut off water to the whole house. Hopefully, not in emergencies—that’s the job of the automatic shut-off valve.)

What the automatic shut-off valve does is right there in its name: when water starts to flood from a burst pipe or other plumbing fiasco in the home, the valve shuts off water flow into the house on its own. There are a number of ways these automatic shut-off valves can work. One of the most common is a pressure sensor. If there is a sudden drop in pressure in the water line, it often means water is being lost through a large leak. The pressure drop causes the valve to swing closed. The valve may also work through sensors placed strategically around the house, such as in the basement, that will detect water where it shouldn’t be and then send an electronic signal to the valve to close.

If you have a water leak emergency, the shut-off valve will close off the flow of water to the house so that no further damage is done from the burst pipe or other problems. You can then arrange for the necessary repairs without panic. But best of all, the shut-off valve will offer you the relief of knowing you already have an emergency plumber of a sort guarding your home when you’re not there. You won’t have to worry about major plumbing accidents causing serious damage to your house.

Our plumbers install and service automatic shut-off valves. If you already have one for your home, contact us for regular maintenance to ensure it works when you need it. If you don’t have one, there’s no time like the present to schedule installation.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the service contractor of choice in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Is It Time to Replace Your Old Kitchen Sink?

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If you’re reading this, you have some reason to have the current sink in your kitchen removed and replaced. There are a couple of reasons you might be debating this change:

  • You’re just tired of the look of the old sink. It’s been there for years—probably since before you moved into the house—and you’d like a fresh kitchen look without having to do an extensive remodel.
  • The sink isn’t flexible enough for your cooking needs. You’d like multiple bowls, better faucets, more space, etc.
  • You’re looking to have the current material of the sink replaced with something more durable.
  • The sink has damage, such as cracks or leaking around the sides, and it’s not the type of damage that a localized fix will remedy.

Whatever the reason, you’re ready to have the old sink tossed out and a new one put in. To handle this type of sink plumbing in Bethesda, MD, you’ll want to look to experienced plumbers to help you through all the steps so you end up with a great new sink.

Don’t Try to DIY This Job!

You can type in a few keywords into an Internet search engine, and the Internet will “reward” you with numerous pages and videos explaining how you can replace a kitchen sink on your own. These get clicks, but they aren’t actually helpful.

Replacing a kitchen sink is a big job. Just removing the original sink takes a great deal of work. If you want to make an upgrade to a new kind of sink—and we definitely recommend this—then the job becomes even more complex. Making mistakes with installing kitchen plumbing can have major consequences, such as leaking and water waste. A sink that isn’t correctly sealed into place can leak around its edges and develop mold and mildew troubles.

You not only are assured of an excellent sink installation when you turn to professionals, but you’ll also save time. The new installation is a fast job for plumbers with training and experience.

Choosing the New Sink

Another way professionals assist you when it comes to sink installation is helping you find the right new model. With so many different options for the layout of the sink and the different materials, you might feel worried you’ll end up with the wrong sink for your needs. Our plumbers are here to help you with making the best choice.

Arrange for Your New Sink Installation Today

It’s too late to have a new sink put in in time for Thanksgiving, but starting out the rest of the holiday season with a refreshed kitchen is a great way to give yourself an early gift—and to head into the New Year with an improved kitchen workspace. Contact us to get started.

Also, keep us in mind if you do decide to go with a complete kitchen remodel. We can handle the plumbing remodeling work that’s necessary to see your new kitchen works without leaks or water waste.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the Service Contractor of choice in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Bathroom Plumbing Jobs to Leave to a Plumber

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No other room in your house has more plumbing concentrated in it than the bathroom(s). The kitchen may seem like it has more fixtures and pipes, but not only does the bathroom contain more plumbing, it can account for more than 50% of all freshwater use in your home. When it comes to taking care of plumbing issues, from repairs to new fixture installations, the bathroom is the place where most of the work in your house will be done.

And the people to do those jobs are usually licensed plumbers. Yes, you can sometimes unclog a drain or toilet using a basic plunger. A simple hand-crank drain snake can remove hair from a shower drain. You can replace a washer in a leaky faucet. But any bathroom plumbing job more complicated than these requires calling an expert plumber with the best equipment. Below are some of these important jobs you should let a plumber take care of.

Leaking toilet

Water starting to gather around the base of a toilet is a reason to make an immediate call to a plumber. This can be a major plumbing emergency, and you don’t want to risk the sort of damage that can be done to the building material around the toilet. (You’ve heard those stories about a toilet crashing through the floor? Well, although uncommon, this can happen—and it’s because of a floor weakened from water damage.) There are a variety of reasons for toilet leaks, and you need a plumber to find the source and fix it.

Obstinate clogs

You have a clog in a sink or the toilet that isn’t responding to a standard plunger or drain snake. So what’s the next step? It shouldn’t be reaching for a store-bought “drain cleaner,” which is a bunch of caustic chemicals that can end up harming your drains while doing an inferior job. You need professional drain cleaning using top equipment to fix the problem. We use special Bio-Clean® to provide safe and effective drain cleaning.

Broken P-trap

The p-trap is the curved section of pipe under a drain, and its job is to maintain a water plug so sewer gas won’t travel the wrong direction up the drainpipe. This section might break or come loose, allowing water to fall directly into the cabinet below. Trying to fix this yourself risks poor connections that will allow for slow leaking, so please leave this to a plumber.

Sink replacement

A cracked sink will need to be replaced, and you want a professional plumber to take care of this. It’s essential the sink is properly sealed to prevent leaks around the edges, which can create numerous problems. When you call on an experienced plumber for the replacement, the job will get done fast and correctly, leaving you with few worries.

When you have to call on a plumber in Frederick, MD, for any of these problems, simply reach out to us. We offer 24-hour service to ensure you get the help you need when you need it.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the Service Contractor of Choice. Our service area covers Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Places in Your Kitchen Plumbing That May Need Repairs

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The most plumbing in a home is concentrated in the bathrooms. In fact, the toilets alone account for 40% of indoor freshwater use in a house. People often assume that the kitchen has the most plumbing. Although not technically true, it’s not a bad assumption to make if it means you pay close attention to the plumbing fixtures and pipes in this part of the home. Most kitchens receive an immense amount of use from day to day, and for households that do plenty of entertaining, the kitchen plumbing becomes critical.

Like almost all residential plumbing, any repairs done to the pipes or fixtures in a kitchen must be left to licensed plumbers. Below are some of the common parts of your kitchen plumbing in Silver Spring, MD that may require professional repairs. We’re here to help, and we offer 24-hour emergency service!

The Kitchen Sink Drain

The two drains in a household that are most likely to clog are the shower drain and kitchen sink drain. The shower drain has to deal with hair going down it, and the kitchen sink drain … well, stop and think about all the food particles, grease, and oil that get washed down it, and you’ll start to see why this drain may need a plumber’s attention. When clogs strike the sink, they usually can’t be removed using just a basic plunger; the build-up will need special drain cleaning services.

The Garbage Disposal

One reason that sink drains don’t clog even more often is thanks to the work of the garbage disposal unit, which grinds down food waste so it can safely travel into the sewer line (thus helping to keep it out of landfills). However, garbage disposals go through plenty of abuse in the form of objects that are hard for them to grind down and which shouldn’t go down in them. Even with the best precautions, a disposal may break and need to be repaired.

The P-Trap

This is part of the sink drain, but a specific part that can break and come loose, leading to a basically unusable kitchen. The p-trap is the curved pipe section under the drain that traps a water plug to prevent sewer gas from flowing the wrong direction up the pipe. The p-trap can start to leak or come loose from the sink, and water will then fall straight into the cabinet below. Get a plumber on this right away so you can use the sink again.

Faucets

The leaky faucet is an infamous plumbing problem, and it’s also an immense waste of water. Most people are familiar with tightening up a faucet nozzle to stop leaking, but faucets can also start to leak around their base as they get older, which in turn can cause construction material damage. Repairs in these cases usually involve having a new faucet put in.

Along with all the repair jobs we do for kitchen plumbing, we also offer plumbing service for kitchen remodeling. We’ll make sure that all the plumbing for your newly redesigned kitchen works just the way it should.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating—The Service Contractor of Choice!

What to Do with an Overflowing Toilet

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Now here’s an emergency with household plumbing everybody dreads, one that’s likely to send people into a panic: a toilet that starts to overflow when flushed!

But there’s no need to panic. It’s easy to stop the problem immediately and take care of some potential damage so you can get a professional plumber out to your house to handle whatever repairs are necessary. Below we’ve listed some steps for the best way to handle this problem in your bathroom plumbing in Potomac, MD.

Steps to Take with an Overflowing Toilet

First, turn off the valve on the feed line to the toilet tank. This is the plastic piping that comes from the back of the wall and connects to the tank. The fresh water that fills up the tank after each flush comes through this line. Turn the valve counterclockwise to shut off the flow of water.

But what if your toilet doesn’t have a valve on the feed line? This is possible for older toilets (and we recommend having a new toilet installed in the near future since a toilet this old is probably wasting water). But you can still stop the water. Open up the lid of the tank—and be cautious about it since a broken tank lid is an expensive repair. Pull up the chain in the tank and place something under it to keep it propped up. This will stop the water flow to the tank.

Now place down newspapers or towels around the toilet base to soak up the water. You don’t want water seeping down into the flooring material, nor do you want it to spread around—the water may contain bacteria and other contaminants.

You can try to use a plunger at this point to see if a simple clog is the source of the problem. We otherwise advise you call on your local 24-hour licensed plumber for assistance. We have great staff on the job to help you with any plumbing emergency.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating Is the Service Contractor of Choice.

What to Look for When Hiring a Plumber

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There was a time when finding a plumber was a difficult job because you had to make a serious effort first to collect together a list of enough plumbing contractors in your local area and then start to work on narrowing down the list to the plumber who was best for the job. Today it’s still difficult to find the right plumber to hire, but for different reasons: it no longer takes much effort to find plumbers because you only have to type in a few words into a search engine—but you have so many more choices that it can be overwhelming to find the right plumber.

You’ve made a good start, however, since you’ve found a way to our site—probably through an Internet search. (If friends referred you, that’s even better!) We can offer you more information on what criteria to use when it’s time to hire a plumber.

Licensed and insured

This should be the first thing you look for when you arrive at a plumber’s website: a license from the state. This is how you can tell a professional plumbing contractor from an amateur. No matter what amateur plumbing may promise, you always want to go with a professional. Professionals are better trained, but they’re also insured, which is an important protection for you in case a plumber suffers an injury while on your property. (By the way, we are licensed in multiple states: #WSSC 70019, SC 1191, MD 19572, and VA 045283A.)

Warranties

A good plumber will offer warranties for installations and repairs that go beyond the standard manufacturer’s warranties. We offer a 1-year warranty on new installations and 30-day warranties on repairs.

24-hour emergency service

Plumbing problems don’t like to follow schedules! It’s almost a rule that if something goes wrong with your plumbing, it will go wrong at the least convenient time. A plumbing contractor worth hiring understands that and offers 24-hour emergency service. The last thing you want when you’ve got an overflowing toilet, burst pipe, or loss of water is to have to wait for a plumber’s office hours to start!

A wide range of services

A plumbing system consists of an immense number of appliances and fixtures. Make sure that the plumber you’re looking to hire can do the job you need! It’s a good idea, in general, to stick with a plumber who can tackle many types of plumbing jobs—even ones you may never require, like commercial plumbing—because it indicates a plumbing contractor with the proper tools and experience to do every job right.

Recommended by the community

Always take a look at customer reviews for any plumber you’re thinking of hiring. You want to hear what other customers in the area are saying.

It’s easy to find a quality plumber in Rockville, MD, and the surrounding areas: simply call on us! We’re a licensed professional plumbing contractor with 24-hour service. We are also committed to using the best in current technology, such as sonic detectors, trenchless pipe replacement, and video inspection equipment.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is Your Service Contractor of Choice for the Greater Washington Metro Area.

Can I Do Water Leak Detection Myself?

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One of the important services we offer to homes is detecting where leaks are occurring. A large number of residential plumbing systems suffer from leaks, and most remain hidden until they start to create visible damage—and by that point, the leak has already caused extensive damage and wasted enormous amounts of water.

We recommend homeowners arrange occasionally for leak detection services, even when they don’t have reasons to be suspicious of water leaks. This is especially useful for homes built before 1970, which have aging plumbing.

But is it possible to do leak detection on your own? Well, “yes” and “no.”

You Can Make a Simple Water Leak Test

It’s not truly “leak detection”—at least the way professional plumbers define it—but you can do a simple test to see if your house is secretly wasting water. All you have to do is check on your water meter and write down the current reading, then shut off all water using appliances for an hour. (We recommend doing this at a time right before your house is empty. That way you won’t have to worry that someone may have accidentally flipped on a tap somewhere.) After an hour, check the water meter to see if the reading has gone up. If it has … you’ve probably got a leak somewhere.

You Can’t Actual Detect the Location of Leaks Yourself

The job of professional leak detection isn’t only to find out if leaks exist. It’s to find exactly where they’re occurring. After all, if your home does have hidden leaks, you’ll want them repaired! To pinpoint where leaks are, licensed plumbers use high-end equipment that requires special training: ground microphones, listening discs, thermal scanners, and video pipe inspection equipment. It’s crucial to find the exact location of pipe leaks so plumbers can repair it while doing the least amount of disruption to a home.

For leak detection in Silver Spring, MD, and the surrounding areas, talk to our plumbers today.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating Is the Service Contractor of Choice!

How Does Trenchless Technology Work?

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If you’ve looked around our website, you may have noticed we offer a service called trenchless technology. This isn’t actually a “service,” it’s a way of providing different types of services, such as sewer line repair, sewer line replacement, and water main replacement.

People are often curious about trenchless technology and wish to know how it works and why we use it for plumbing service in Rockville, MD.

Trenchless Technology: A “No Dig” Plumbing Solution

The standard—and for many years only—method of working on buried sewer and water lines is to use excavation equipment to dig down to the pipeline. This is time-consuming and really does a number of the property around the house, making it look like a construction site. Trenchless technology allows skilled plumbers to perform work on sewer and water lines without ripping up trenches.

This is often called “no dig” technology, but there is some digging involved. If the plumbers are replacing an entire sewer line or water main, they dig a single hole near where the pipeline crosses under the property line. They detach the pipe from the municipal system and then place a hydraulic device onto it. From inside the house, a pipeliner is inserted into the older line, and the hydraulic device draws the pipeliner into place. Afterward, a “pipe burster” is sent through the liner, expanding it to shatter the old pipeline and replace it with the new one. Voila! A new pipe is in place, no major trench digging required.

The process is similar for repairs, except the plumbers will target a smaller area of the pipe, digging holes on both sides of the affected section to insert the liner and pipe burster. The process only requires a few hours (as opposed to days with regular digging methods) and when it’s done only one or two small spots need to be filled in and landscaped.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating: Your service contractor of choice! We use the best trenchless technology to serve your sewer and water main needs.

Ways Your Home Might Be Wasting Water

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You can find plenty of tips online for how to cut down on the amount of water you consume in your home. You’re probably already familiar with many of them: take shorter showers, only run dishwasher and laundry machines on full loads, don’t let the water run while you’re brushing your teeth, defrost food in the refrigerator rather than running hot water over it, etc. All of these are good ways to see that you aren’t using more water than necessary.

But your house might be the one doing the water wasting, and you can’t get your house to read online tips and follow them! We’re going to look at some of the places where your house is the source of water waste. With the assistance of our professional plumbers, you can have these problems fixed and your water bills reduced. The environment will thank you as well!

You have a leaking toilet

The leaking toilet is one of the most insidious water wasting sources in a house. It’s often difficult to notice when water is slowly leaking from the tank of the toilet in the bowl, but it’s common and can mean wasting up to 200 gallons of water per day. If you’re unsure if your toilet is leaking, place a few drops of food coloring into the tank, then wait 20 to 30 minutes. If the color has seeped into the bowl, you have a leaking toilet. Arrange to have plumbers repair the toilet right away.

There are hidden pipe leaks

The pipes behind the walls and in the floor can have sprung leaks, which is hard to notice at first. Unfortunately, by the time it becomes apparent, not only will the pipe leaks have wasted large amounts of water, they’ll probably have caused extensive damage as well. According to the EPA WaterSense Program, if water use for a family of four exceeds 12,000 gallons a month, it almost certainly means hidden leaking. To find the hidden leaks, arrange for professional leak detection with our plumbers. We’ll locate the leaks and have them fixed.

You have leaky faucets

A leaky faucet might seem like its minor when it comes to water use. How bad can it be? Well, pretty bad! A faucet that leaks one drip per minute can add up to 3,000 gallons wasted per year. If you have any faucets, showerheads, or other plumbing fixtures that are drip, drip, dripping away, don’t delay at having them repaired. It’s a simple fix that makes a big difference.

You have an aging toilet

Older toilets use 5 to 6 gallons per flush. “Is that a lot?” you ask. Yes! Modern toilets use around 3 gallons per flush, and special low-flow toilet models only use 1.3 gallons per flush. That’s a tremendous difference. Old toilets are more likely to clog and develop even greater water-wasting behavior, so have plumbers remove aging fixtures (more than 20 years old) and put in new ones.

For professional plumbing in Chevy Chase, MD, we’re the service contractor to call on! We pride ourselves on our honesty and integrity, and we look forward to helping you and your family save on water and enjoy better plumbing.

Mallick Plumbing & Heating is the service contractor of choice throughout the Greater Washington Metro area.

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